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Comment Re: 200 million angry, single disaffected young m (Score 1) 67

It makes no sense to claim Chinese courts have a lot of power, although it may seem that way â" itâ(TM)s supposed to seem that way. One of the foundational principles of Chinese jurisprudence is party supremacy. Every judge is supervised by a PLC â" party legal committee â" which oversees budgets, discipline and assignments in the judiciary. They consult with the judges in sensitive trials to ensure a politically acceptable outcome.

So it would be more accurate to characterize the courts as an instrument of party power rather than an independent power center.

From time to time Chinese court decisions become politically inconvenient, either through the supervisors in the PLC missing something or through changing circumstances. In those cases there is no formal process for the party to make the courts revisit the decision. Instead the normal procedure is for the inconvenient decision to quietly disappear from the legal databases, as if it never happened. When there is party supremacy, the party can simply rewrite judicial history to its current needs.

An independent judiciary seems like such a minor point; and frankly it is often an impediment to common sense. But without an independent judiciary you canâ(TM)t have rule of law, just rule by law.

Comment Re: Going for gold (Score 1) 210

They don't. LG TVs have an absolutely trash interface. I have a 43UT8000 and it is the laggiest fucking thing ever made. I even have it set to never sleep for efficiency and it still occasionally tells me to wait while it gets its shit together before I'm allowed to change inputs.

Comment Re: 200 million angry, single disaffected young me (Score 1) 67

Hereâ(TM)s the problem with that scenario: court rulings donâ(TM)t mean much in a state ruled by one party. China has plenty of progressive looking laws that donâ(TM)t get enforced if it is inconvenient to the party. There are emission standards for trucks and cars that should help with their pollution problems, but there are no enforcement mechanisms and officials have no interest in creating any if it would interfere with their economic targets or their private interests.

China is a country of strict rules and lax enforcement, which suits authoritarian rulers very well. It means laws are flouted routinely by virtually everyone, which gives the party leverage. Displease the party, and they have plenty of material to punish you, under color of enforcing laws. It sounds so benign, at least theyâ(TM)re enforcing the law part of the time, right? Wrong. Laws selectively enforced donâ(TM)t serve any public purpose; theyâ(TM)re just instruments of personal power.

Americans often donâ(TM)t seem to understand the difference between rule of law and rule *by* law. Itâ(TM)s ironic because the American Revolution and constitution were historically important in establishing the practicality of rule of law, in which political leaders were not only expected to obey the laws themselves, but had a duty to enforce the law impartially regardless of their personal opinions or interests.

Rule *by* law isnâ(TM)t a Chinese innovation, it was the operating principle for every government before 1789. A government that rules *by* law is only as good as the men wielding power, and since power corrupts, itâ(TM)s never very good for long.

Comment Re: Credit scores are not what you think they are (Score 1) 100

I *was* in the high 700s, I had a 790. I got there by just getting one card and keeping it paid off.

Then I got some more loans and paid them off and now my score is *lower*

You keep telling me things about how you think it work which are obviously incorrect and then you want to tell me more things and expect me to believe them. That's literally insane.

Comment Re:Not really a rival (Score 1) 49

What's surprised me in the processor market is AMD making inroads in the laptop space that Intel owned for decades

AMD has superior power management in their chip, in terms of being able to shut down functional units when not in use, so now that they are on the same or superior process technology they have an efficiency edge over Intel. Intel was only ahead of AMD in mobile because they had superior process tech. That is now over and there are no signs it's coming back (Intel having failed at getting acceptable yields with two process shrinks in a row now) so AMD has the clear edge for the time being.

Comment Re:Stop with the be gay, do crime stuff (Score 1) 133

immel got drummed off the air for lying on air saying that the shooter was a conservative MAGA supporter..."one of their own", long after official statements and evidence have plainly stated the opposite.

What official statements, as if those were relevant? What evidence?

Comment Re:America's food security depends on immigrant la (Score 1) 67

If there are no immigrants working for slave-like wages, food companies will have to do a couple of things. (1) Innovate with technology to rely on less labor. This is called a productivity gain.

All of the low-hanging fruit has been picked there, pun intended. Crops which are easy to machine cultivate are already produced with machine cultivation.

And (2) start paying people a decent/humane wage, and this will attract more workers to this line of work.

The first thing can't happen or they would have done it already, and the second thing is the opposite of their mission.

Comment Re:Deserve what you get (Score 2) 210

The big problem with these "smart" things is that it's getting hard to avoid them. Several years ago I was looking for TV. A few dozen "smart" TVs to choose from but exactly 2 non-smart TVs. I don't mean 2 models, I mean 2 TVs in the whole store. Luckily one of them was suitable.

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